Revelstoke, B.C, Feb. 16, 2018

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
Liz, Tseeb and I arrived about 8:30AM as we had to leave by 2PM to get to Mustang’s pickup 30 miles west of Revelstoke. There was a 10 minute line in Guest Services for Mountain Collective, but lift lines on the mountain including the initial gondola were never more than 10-20 people.

There had been considerable snow over the past few days, but most of it was tracked out. There were 2cm overnight and it snowed moderately all morning. From noon to 1PM the top of Stoke got very foggy, so the timing of our skiing was good. There had been enough snow that there were minimal scraped off areas, even down low. These were among the best snow conditions I’ve seen at Revelstoke but it was still a lot of work. Smooth snow surfaces seem to be a rarity there, so you’re constantly adjusting to bumps and changes in pitch, depth of soft snow etc.

We started with a couple of Stoke laps, near the edges of upper Snow Rodeo and SWF to get into the softer snow. Our third run we skied Separate Reality to Critical Path to meet Kara, a friend of Rainbow Jenny’s. The four of us skied Critical Path to get to the Ripper chair. On our first run I inadvertently crossed under the lift on Sally’s Alley. Liz and Kara were lured into the Powder Monkey Glades. When I realized they were not behind me I tried the Glades of Glory. The good news is that Revelstoke has finally thinned some of the Ripper glades as the natural spacing of trees on Mt. MacKenzie is much tighter than in most of the Selkirks.

I took another Ripper lap on Chopper then returned to Stoke. I had thought it would be worthwhile taking the 5 minute bootpack to North Bowl, as quite a few people were doing that earlier. But now it was foggy at the top of Stoke, so Tseeb and I instead took the gravity traverse to Meet the Neighbors. There was some flat light but most of the run had adequate visibility from the rocks dropping in and from the trees lower down.

Tseeb and I took one more Stoke lap on Separate Reality and then took Stoke one more time for the 5,600 vertical run to the bottom. After 2,000 vertical of soft but bumpy and variable skiing on Upper Devil’s Club, I bailed to groomed Fast Fred’s and lower Snow Rodeo. Total vertical was 25,000 and we were done at 1:35PM.

With snow, fog and 15F temperatures up high, I was not motivated to use the camera. But it would be at least a week before I would see temperatures that warm again.
 
105m should be fine if you have lots of tip rocker/early rise. Having the widest part of the ski set back some from the tip is good too.
 
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